Mohammad Arif

Dr. Mohammad Arif is currently working as Research Associate in the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, India. His research interest zeroes on issues of urban development and its economic and social rationality & consequences. Basically, he is interested in smaller second or third-tier cities of the Indian subcontinent and their socio-economic roles. Previously I have completed two year Master Degree in Geography from Aligarh Muslim University and three year Bachelor degree in Geography from Aligarh Muslim University, India. Besides this, he has work experience as a field coordinator in a Ministry of Labour and Employment sponsored Research Project which was housed at the Centre for Labour and Health Studies, V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, Noida with entitled “Evaluation Study of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana” in 2014. So far, he has published 7 research papers in reputed peer reviewed international journals, on the aspects of socio-economic transformation, urban growth, mobility network, development planning and most recently COVID-19 issue.

He focuses on issues of peri-urban development and its economic and social rationality and consequences. While India boasts of having megacities much larger, many smaller cities and their urban areas have remained inconspicuous to policy framers and academia. As a double bind, I am interested in second or third-tier cities of the South-Asian countries and their economic roles. Their subaltern economic contribution to the national output is considerable and therefore needs a different optic that not only subscribes to traditional modes of knowing but also contemporary channels and interstices that could give us a better picture. He has published articles in the area of urban geography, social geography, economic geography and transport geography of international repute.